Irish Taoiseach rules out 'border for the Brexiteers' between Northern Ireland and the Republic

LONDON — Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has ruled out assisting the
UK with creating an economic border between Northern Ireland
and the Republic of Ireland, insisting that his government will
not "design a border for the Brexiteers."

Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to leave the Customs Union
after Brexit means that a new solution needs to be found to what
will happen with the border between Northern Ireland and the
Republic.

The Irish government has called for the Irish Sea to become the
border between the Republic of Ireland and the UK after Brexit
as it does not believe the UK government's current plans for
a technological border will work, the Times newspaper
reported on Friday.

Varadkar told reporters on Friday afternoon: "As far as this
government is concerned there shouldn't be an economic border. We
don't want one,"

The Taoiseach has previously warned Prime Minister May that her
plans for the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern
Ireland could harm the peace process.

Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister told a meeting of EU
foreign affairs ministers: "What we do not want to pretend is
that we can solve the problems of the border on the island of
Ireland through technical solutions like cameras and
pre-registration and so on. That is not going to work.

"Any barrier or border on the island of Ireland in my view risks
undermining a very hard-won peace process and all of the parties
in Northern Ireland, whether they are unionist or nationalist,
recognise that we want to keep the free movement of people and
goods and services and livelihoods."

DUP reject sea border

Nigel Dodds, the Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader told Sky
News that his party would "totally reject [a sea border]" and "I
don't know what the new Irish prime minister is playing at."

Dodds said: "We're not going to start erecting barriers between
Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom."

May's Conservative government had been working on a plan that
would involve surveillance cameras in order to allow free trade
between across Ireland. However, the Irish government wants
customs checks to happen at ports and airports instead, creating
a new border in the Irish Sea as a result.

If as expected the UK leaves the Customs
Union as part of its divorce from the European Union Brexit,
some sort of new border controls would likely have to be
introduced between the Republic of Ireland and the UK in order to
prevent smuggling. This could
harm the peace process as it partly relies on the absence of
borders for goods and people moving between Northern Ireland
and the Republic.

Neither the Irish or British government want a return to a
physical hard Irish border that would mean checkpoints being
operated and customs checks that would affect communities and
businesses both sides of the border.

However, the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel
Barnier has
previously warned that "frictionless trade" is "not possible"
following Brexit.

Change in tone

British government officials have apparently been surprised by
the Irish government's change in tone, announced at an EU summit
in Brussels last week.

A Whitehall source told the Times: "There is a new taoiseach and
a new foreign minister and they’re stamping their authority.
We’re being as positive as we can but it’s true to say that their
attitude has hardened."

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, a senior DUP MP told BBC Radio 4's
Today programme that his party "would be strongly opposed to the
idea that you would create a border in the Irish sea between the
island of Ireland and Great Britain."

This is important as the DUP are currently partners with May's
Conservative government in a confidence and supply deal in
Westminster. Any threat to this informal coalition could bring
down the government.

When he was asked whether he could rule out his party's support
for the idea, Donaldson said: "Yes, I certainly can. There is no
way that the DUP would go for an option that creates a border
between one part of the United Kingdom and the other."

Brexit secretary David Davis told MPs last year that he "did not
see [a sea border] would be the solution."

The
Irish Times reported that the Home Office has not
consulted any external officials on the impact of Brexit on the
Irish border and Irish citizens living in the UK or the Republic.